Education update December 14-18, 2009

Yah!!!!!  It's time for a Break!!

N finished his Japanese class with what he thinks is an A.   This class was a 5 credit college class, and I am very proud of all the hard work he put in this last sememster.   He also finished Chemistry, English, History, Physcology, Leadership, and Crew so far this semester(all with As)--with 3 more weeks to go after break.   He set some goals at the beginning of the semester and is right on track to finish those goals by the end of the semester.   He's also volunteered at Project Secure all most every week.   Oh, and I think he's only missed one day of seminary!

A-M presented her ninth-grade project as the example student on Monday.   This meant that she delivered her 10 minute speech to all of the judges that were being trained along with many communty leaders.   I was in attendence and think I had more butterflies than she did!   She did a beautiful job and was the only student to earn the full 300 points!  

On the home front:

We mostly finished up loose ends this week.

E-R and I-E finished their Primary Mathmatics 4A workbooks.   I am using the CA standards textbook though so we do have a few more topics to cover after break before we move on to 4B.   After finishing their books, they enjoyed Vroot and Vroom on the computer.   E finished chapter 13 in Teaching Textbooks which was an introduction to geometry.  

We continued spelling throughout the week.

We ditched the rest of Shurley English.    Instead we enjoyed watching the comma portion of

Standard Deviants Punctuation DVD

We had fun watching the examples of when one uses commas and then writing our own examples.   I learned that sometimes it is optional to use commas--one does not need to use them and yet it is perfectly okay to do so!   Who knew?

E finished up reading The Hobbit and we are going to make his BB display into a book.   I-E and E-R finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphin.   I-E made a scrapbook showing the plot of the story.   E-R made a map depicting the setting of the book.

Our main project this week was finishing research papers.    Papers are finished along with work cited pages.   We have been practicing taking notes and writing outlines throughout the first half of the year, and we took it a step further these last few weeks.   Papers included text citations and work cited pages.   As a bonus, N taught E, I-E, and E-R how to make their papers into a Power Point Presentation.  I think that was as entertaining as any other computer game they play.   I've included their papers on the side.  

Merry Christmas all!

  I am very happy for a break to enjoy preperations for Christmas and to have a little time to plan the next few months of school!!!!

Thankfulness and Christmas Idea

I am very thankful to have kids that think beyond themselves.   This year we received a catalog from an organization that supplies animals along with training to people in third world countries who need to learn to fish(so to speak--although, they also supply fish complete with a pond ;) ).   My kids being my offspring are all over any catalogs that enter the house--exspecially my I-E.   They examined this catalog from front to back and asked many questions.   It was then proposed that as a family we skip having alot of gifts and instead buy some farm animals.   A vote was administrated and ducks are what we will be buying.   These ducks will replace chickens that were lost in floods in places like Indonesia.   It turns out that ducks will survive much better in places where wet weather is becoming the norm.   These ducks will provide meat, eggs, and extra income to a family that will be trained in the husbandry of ducks.   Also, available are goats, cows, chickens,  sheep, pigs, donkeys, oxen, rabbits, wells, mosquito nets, seeds, school supplies, ect.

World Vision

Check them out---87% of what you donate is used to help others better their lives.

Education Update November 23--Dec 11

Christmas is in the air!!!!!

Lots of performances these past few weeks.   E was an hilarious Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, E-R and I-E performed a beautiful poem with their drama class, and N and A-M graced us with their beautiful voices at the church Christmas breakfast.

Gaston wooing Belle

E-R and I-E with their drama class performing Noel

Angels singing to Baby Jesus

N with the young men gracing us with their deep voices!

E helping to lead Christmas Carols

Even with so much Christmas activity in the air, we continued on with school.

Language Arts:   Spelling---E-R and I-E have worked through day 50 of Sequential Spe lling. I-E and E-R worked through day 60.   Shurley English---My goal is to finish Shurley by the end of next week.   The new concepts taught at the end of the program  are concepts that overlap with our writing progam so I decided we could speed through these last three weeks.  So in the last few weeks we've covered verb tenses, double negatives, contractions, linking verbs, similes, metaphors, parts of a friendly letter, and parts of a business letter.    Write Source----STILL working on our research papers.   Outlines were made and rough drafts created.   Next step--revising and editing.  

Math:  Teaching Textbooks--lessons 71-80--percentages--E also continued working in Life of Fred.   I-E and E-R  finished book one of Key to Fractions before starting book two and learned how to multiply two digit numbers in Primary Mathmatics.

History:   These past few weeks we studied the Assyrians and the rebirth of Babylon.   The kids also reviewed their timelines to see how the events of the different civilizations they've studied fit together.  

Art:   We continued studying lines.   This week the kids drew a  blind self portrait and then a self portrait where they got to actually look at their papers while drawing their portraits.  

Science:   I-E and E-R are studying insects.   Unfortuntually, its been a bit chilly here for them to observe any live insects.   But I'm sure any day the Santa Anna Winds will blow and bring those insects out of hiding.   E studied fixed pulleys by building a model and testing how much force was used with different lengths of rope.  

Spanish and French:   We are putting together books about ourselves in Spanish and French and using Rosetta Stone.  

Drama: E-R and I-E worked on memorizing their Noel poems and had a recital.   E had two performances of Beauty and the Beast where he had a winning performance as Gastine.

Water Polo:   Water Polo ended for the season.   We have swim team tryouts this coming week.

Final day of water polo for this season.

Where I live Wednesday

On Wednesdays I'm going to post where I live pictures.  

My front door.

SOTW and History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients

I decided to combine History Odyssey with Story of the World.   I knew that Story of the World would be a good introduction to Ancient History for E-R and I-E.   I also remembered the fun element from the first time I studied Ancient History with N and A-M.  History Odyssey is a solid program that combines history with basic research and research writing skills, but fun is not an adjective I would include with any description of it.   I think satisfying works well to describe it.   It is satisfying to complete a map while learning the locations of cities and countries one has just read about.   It is satisfying to look back over summeries of important figures one has written.   It is satisfying to explain to dad the outline one has written.   I want to teach the joy of satistfaction, but I also want to teach the excitement of learning how others lived, thought,and believed through exciting stories and hands-on activities.  

So, this year I decided to combine the two programs.   E sticks with History Odyssey.   He is old enough to remember the stories from SOTW from the last time we studied ancient history.   A-M and I-E read SOTW together.    I pick a few activities to go with each part of History Odyssey.   Voila, best of both worlds!

Anyway, now to the part you cared about!   I've matched up the chapters of SOTW with History Odyssey.   I know that some ladies on TWTM forums have mentioned that they perfer to do the opposite---Follow SOTW and add in History Odyssey.   To be honest, that does make more sense to me, but I didn't think about doing it that way before we started, so here we are.   Perhaps next year, I will try it that way.   So if you wish to do it that way, this list will still work--just complete the SOTW chapters in order and match them up to the History Odyssey lessons listed.  

Lessons Listed are for History Odyssey and Chapters listed correspond with SOTW

Lesson 2---Chapter 1

Lesson 7---Chapters 3 and 7

Lesson 9---Chapters 2 and 4

Lesson 10---Chapter 12

Lesson 13---Chapter 13 and 14

Lesson 20---Chapter 11

Lesson 22---Chapter 8

Lesson 24---Chapter 17

Lesson 27---Chapter 10

Lesson 29---Chapters 32-33

Lesson 32---Chapter 6

Lesson 33---Chapter 14

Lesson 35---Chapter 38

Lesson 36---Chapter 39

Lesson 37---Chapter 37

Lesson 38---Chapter 15

Lesson 40---Chapter 26

Lesson 43---Chapter 9

Lesson 45---Chapters 31-32

Lesson 48---Chapter 21

Lesson 50---Chapter 19

Lesson 54---Chapter 20

Lesson 56---Chapter 22

Lesson 59---Chapter 23

Lesson 61---Chapter 24

Lesson 66---Chapter 25

Lesson 69---Chapter 27

Lesson 71---Chapter 29

Lesson 74---Chapter 34

Lesson 75---Chapter 35

Lesson 76---Chapter 36

Lesson 80---Chapter 28

Lesson 83---Chapter 41

Lesson 84---Chapter 40

Lesson 85---Chapter 42

The End!

Of course, not all of the chapters matched up perfectly with the lessons.   So, if you find something that works better, please let me know.